There is a strong and growing demand for communities within distributed networks. They help new-comers immediately realize the value of these enigmatic services like Twitter. Verticals foster a conversation for eavesdropping or participation.
What is striking is how much of the conversation flows around the few at the top.
Below is a chart of the 225 most active participants discussing stocks and finance on Twitter. The orange bars represent the number of times a user was included in a tweet (an @reply in Twitter parlance). The green bars represent how many times the same user included an @reply to another user.
Not only are top disproportionately spoken about, but understandably, they are also driving the conversation by speaking to others. They disproportionately converse.
What does this mean to you on Twitter and beyond? Conversation at its root is speaking with, not at or to; both are required to build trust and presence through dialogue. Seth Godin would be proud. The top few percent really do rule this roost. The good news is that everything you need for organic growth is in place, you just have to be willing to put in the work.
